1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a glass patterned retarder stereoscopic 3D display device, and particularly, to a glass patterned retarder stereoscopic 3D display device capable of allowing a user to view 3D images using polarized glasses, and a method for fabricating the same.
2. Related Art of the Invention
A 3D display device may be referred to as a total system for implementing a 3D screen.
The system includes software technique for displaying contents in a 3D manner, and hardware technique for implementing contents generated by software in a 3D manner. The reason why the system includes software technique is because 3D display hardware requires contents by additional software according to each 3D implementation method.
A virtual 3D display refers to a total system capable of allowing a viewer to virtually perceive a 3D effect, from a planar display hardware, using a binocular disparity resulting from that human's eyes are spaced from each other by a distance of about 65 mm. More specifically, the viewer's eyes recognize different images (images having left and right spatial information) due to a binocular disparity. Once the two different images are transferred to the viewer's brain through retinas, the brain precisely combines them to allow the viewer to perceive a 3D effect. Here, a 2D display device simultaneously displays right and left images to form a virtual stereoscopic effect through designs for right and left eyes, which is a virtual 3D display.
In order for the virtual 3D display device to display images from two channels on a single screen, the images are output from the channels one by one in an alternating manner in a horizontal or vertical direction on a single screen. Once the two images from the two channels are output from a single display device, a right image is input to the right eye and a left image is input to the left eye in case of a auto-stereoscopic method due to a hardware structure. In case of a stereoscopic method using glasses, a right image is blocked so as not to be viewed by the left eye, and a left image is blocked so as not to be viewed by the right eye, by using specific glasses.
A method for displaying 3D images is categorized into the stereoscopic method using glasses, and the auto-stereoscopic method.
The stereoscopic method includes an anaglyph method using red/cyan glasses at left and right sides, respectively, a patterned retarder stereoscopic method using polarized glasses having different right and left polarizing directions, a shutter glasses method using liquid crystal (LC) shutter glasses synchronized with a period and for periodically repeating a time-divided image, etc. Among such methods, the patterned retarder stereoscopic method has an advantage that a 3D image can be easily implemented from two 2D images.
FIG. 1 is an exemplary view schematically showing a structure of a patterned retarder stereoscopic 3D display device in accordance with the related art, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view schematically showing a structure of a patterned retarder stereoscopic 3D display device in accordance with the related art.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the patterned retarder stereoscopic 3D display method is a method for spatially separating right and left images from each other by arranging a patterned retarder 20 on a front surface of an image panel 10, using a polarization phenomenon.
The patterned retarder 20 indicates a film where predetermined patterns are formed at corresponding positions so that right and left images can implement polarization states perpendicular to each other.
For instance, the patterned retarder 20 is provided with a glass substrate 23. Although not shown, an alignment layer and a bi-refractive layer are formed on the glass substrate 23. The alignment layer and the bi-refractive layer are provided with regular patterns of a first region 21, and regular patterns of a second region 22. The first region 21 and the second region 22 are formed of strips alternating each other in correspondence to image lines of the image panel 10. The first and second regions 21 and 22 have the same alignment direction.
In case of implementing an LCD device as the image panel 10, a polarizing plate 11 having a light absorbing axis in a horizontal direction is disposed between the image panel 10 and the patterned retarder 20.
Here, the image panel 10 may include upper and lower glass substrates 5 and 15, and an LC layer formed between the upper and lower glass substrates 5 and 15. A thin film transistor (TFT) is formed on the lower glass substrate 15, and a color filter array is formed on the upper glass substrate 5. The color filter array includes a black matrix 6, a color filter 7, etc.
A widely-used 3D display method is a method for displaying right and left images on pixels on odd and even lines, or on even and odd lines, respectively. That is, as shown, ‘L’ images are disposed in odd lines and ‘R’ images are disposed in even lines in a vertical direction. Once the ‘L’ and ‘R’ images are displayed on the image panel 10, a viewer can appreciate 3D images by separately viewing the ‘L’ and ‘R’ images using 3D glasses 30.
In the patterned retarder stereoscopic method, since the ‘L’ images and the ‘R’ images come in contact with each other, the viewer cannot separately view the ‘L’ and ‘R’ images from each other using left and right lens 35L and 35R of the 3D glasses 30. This may cause crosstalk that the ‘R’ images are input to the left eye and the ‘L’ images are input to the right eye, or may cause a viewing angle limited in upper and lower directions.
To solve such problems, a width of the black matrix 6 of the upper glass substrate 5 was increased. However, in this case, an aperture ratio may be lowered in proportion to the increased width of the black matrix 6.